In Matthew, Mark, and Luke, we
have the instructions with regard to the Lord's table from the
Lord Himself already written down. Take, eat, this is my body
broken for you. Take, drink. We're going to look
at those in a moment. But for some reason, Paul lets
us know in verse 23, for I have received of the Lord. The Lord gave me direct instructions
concerning this. Perhaps it was when he was in
the third heavens when he tells us of what took place in 2 Corinthians
12. Maybe it was at that time, but
the Lord repeated and gave him specific instructions with regard
to the Lord's table. He had delivered this to the
church at Corinth before, and they had drifted away from it. Look in verse 17. Now in this
that I declare unto you, he's getting ready to talk about the
Lord's table. And he says, now in this that I declare unto you,
I praise you not that you come together, not for the better,
but for the worse. When you come to partake of the
Lord's table, it's not a good thing. You are damaged by it. You are hurt by it. You're not coming together for
the better, but for the worse. Now that is striking, isn't it?
Now, why does he say this? Verse 18. For first of all, when
you come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions. schisms, factions among you. And that's really the way he
began this epistle. If you look in that first chapter,
he talked about one saying, I'm a Paul and another saying, I'm
of Apollos and another saying, I'm a Cephas. And then the real
pious one said, I don't follow any man. I'm of Christ. And there
were divisions within the church. And he says, I believe it for,
now look what he says in verse 19. For there must be also heresies
among you." Now, what's a heresy? The word means a choosing. If you believe heretical doctrine,
that means you believe what you've chosen to believe. If I believe
error, if I believe that which is contrary to the gospel, it's
because that's what I choose. Now, when you believe the gospel,
you don't choose to believe the gospel. You believe because it's
true, don't you? You don't really have any choice. It's not like
you're thinking, well, am I gonna believe that or not? No, you
see this as the word of God, as the truth of the gospel, and
you say, I believe. You don't choose, well, I'm gonna
choose to believe. You don't even think that way. You believe,
but if you believe that which is contrary to the gospel, you
have made a choice to believe that. You know, believing that
which is not true is sin. It's a choosing to go against
what God says. But notice how he says this,
for there must be also heresies among you that they which are
approved, approved by God. that they which are approved
may be made manifest among you. I know this, those who are approved
are those who believe the gospel. Every one of them, they are approved. Somebody that doesn't believe
the gospel, somebody that's a heretic, somebody who chooses to believe
that which is contrary to the gospel, they're not approved
by God. But this is necessary, John says, that they which are
approved may be made manifest among you, verse 20. When you
therefore come together into one place, this is not to eat
the Lord's supper. Now you say you're coming to eat the Lord's
supper, he says to the church of Corinth. And you know the
church of Corinth was filled with one problem after another.
One problem after another. And here's one of the problems.
When they came together to eat the Lord's table, look what they
did. You say you're coming to eat the Lord's table, but that's
not what you're doing. For, verse 21, For an eating, every one before
the other has his own supper. One's hungry and another is drunken. Intoxicated is the word. Intoxicated. Now, that alone lets me know
that they weren't drinking grape juice for the Lord's table. You
can't get intoxicated by grape juice. They were drinking wine.
And people were using this as a time to feast. And he goes
on to talk about how they shame people who didn't have as much
as they did. They would, I guess it was a
potluck where not everybody split everything up. He just brought
what you were going to eat. And some ate well, some were
hungry, some were even becoming drunk at the Lord's table. What? Have you not houses to eat and
drink in or despise ye the church of God and shame them that have
not? What shall I say to you? Shall
I praise you in this? I praise you not. There's nothing
right about this. Now, this is how he's speaking
to the church at Corinth. Now, he then says in verse 23,
for I have received of the Lord. This was a direct communication
from the Lord to me. I have received of the Lord that
which I also delivered unto you. Now, let's look at what the Lord
said in Matthew chapter Matthew 26, beginning in verse
26. And as they were eating, they
were eating the Passover meal. And in the Passover meal, you
had unleavened bread. That's why we eat unleavened
bread when we eat the Lord's table. And remember when we partake
of the Lord's table, it's a special time. And every time I've ever
taken the Lord's table, I've thought, I don't feel enough.
I don't feel enough. What's wrong with me? I ought
to be more moved by that. Well, that's happened every time I've
ever taken the Lord's Table. And I always chastise myself about
it, but that's, I bet everybody in here feels that way. I ought
to be more moved. Yeah, probably ought to be. But
when you start thinking that way, what scares me about something
like that is people want to manufacture feelings. They're looking within.
I do it, you do it. I wish we'd stop doing that,
but that's what's called the flesh. But at any rate, the Lord
says, and as they were eating, verse 26, Jesus took bread and
blessed it and break it and gave it to the disciples and said,
take, eat. You know, when you eat something,
it becomes part of you, doesn't it? Nobody can take that away. When you drink something, it
becomes part of you and nobody can take that away. And he took the cup and gave
thanks and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it. Everybody
is to drink this. For this is my blood. Speaking
of drinking that wine, this is my blood of the New Testament,
which is shed for many. I think the language is interesting
there. He doesn't say it's shed for everybody. It wasn't. He said it's shed for many. remission
of sins." Because of what His blood accomplished, the remission
of sins. Now look in Mark chapter 14.
This is Mark's account and it's pretty much the same thing. Verse 22, And as they did eat, Jesus took
bread and blessed and break it and gave it to them and said,
take, eat. This is my body. And he took
the cup and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them and
they all drank of it. And he said unto them, this is
my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many. Look
in Luke 22. beginning in verse 14. And when the hour was come to
eat the Passover meal, he sat down and the 12 apostles with
him, and he said unto them with desire, have I desired to
eat this Passover with you before I suffer." And it wasn't just the 12 that
he desired to eat this Passover with. This is all of the company
of his elect with desire. What words? With desire. Have I desired to eat this Passover
with you before I suffer? For I say unto you that I'll
not eat any more thereof until it be fulfilled in the kingdom
of God. And he took the cup and gave thanks and said, take this
and divide it among yourselves. For I say unto you, I'll not
drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God shall
come. And he took the bread and gave thanks and break it. and
gave unto them, saying, This is my body, which is given for
you, this dew in remembrance of me. Likewise also the cup
after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood,
which is shed for you. Now the last gospel written is
the gospel of John, and John chapter 13 through 17, that glorious
passage of scripture, all took place during this last supper
with his disciples. That's when he gave those instructions
in John chapter 13 through 17. Now, do you know who ate this
bread and drank this wine at this time? Judas Iscariot. He was eating the bread, he was
drinking the wine. Now, what this does is it blows
out of the water the thought of somebody fencing the table
and looking it over and saying, well, this person should not
eat of the bread or drink of the wine. The Lord knew exactly
what Judas would do. And he had him, allowed him to
eat of the bread and drink of the wine. And I'll be honest
with you. I can't think of anything much
more creepy than somebody standing over somebody else and deciding
whether or not they can eat of the Lord's table or not. That's
something no man has any reason to ever do. Let a man examine
himself, not examine somebody else. Let a man examine himself,
and so let him eat. We're going to consider that
in a few moments. But that's significant, isn't
it? The Lord knew exactly what Judas Iscariot would do, and
he told him what you're going to do quickly at that time, and
he left after they had taken the Lord's table. This is never
to be used for church discipline, and that's what it's used. Don't
let them take the Lord's table. They're not living up to a certain
standard. They shouldn't take the Lord's table. That is not
what the Lord's table is about, and to use it that way It's just
flat out wrong, and it's evil, and it's scary, it's creepy.
I mean, I hate using that kind of language, but I think it's
creepy that somebody would think that they could judge whether
or not somebody ought to take the Lord's table. The Lord, well,
enough of that. But even after all of this, The
Lord saw fit to deliver this special instruction to Paul.
Even after we already have the information in Matthew, Mark,
and Luke, Paul lets the church at Corinth know, the Lord gave
me this directly, and I delivered it to you. And they drifted off
as we saw. Now, he said, verse 23, for I've
received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that
the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took
bread. Now, they took the Lord's table
at night. The reason we do this on an evening
service is because that's when they did it. And somebody says,
does it really make any difference? Well, I wanna do it just like
they did. That seems like the only safe
thing. You saying it's wrong to do it
in the morning? No, I'm not saying it's wrong, but I'm saying that
they did it at night, and I would prefer doing it at night. I'm
sure you would too, just because that's what it says. The same
night which he was betrayed, he took bread. Verse 24, and when he had given
thanks. You ever heard this called the
Eucharist? Sure you have. The Eucharist, all that is, is
he gave thanks. It's the Greek word for that
giving of thanks. The same night he was betrayed,
he took bread, break it, and he gave thanks. And said, take,
eat, this is my body. He didn't say,
this represents my body. He doesn't say, this is symbolic
of my body. He said, this is my body, which
is broken for you. He said the same thing about
the wine. This is my blood. Now out of that, we have what
the Catholic Church has called the doctrine of transubstantiation.
that when you eat the bread, you're literally eating the body
of Christ. It becomes his body. When you
drink the wine, you literally are drinking the blood of Christ.
And the argument for that is, he said, this is my body. He
didn't say this represents my body. He said, this is my body.
And then there are those who have stood for what they call
the doctrine of consubstantiation, which means it's only for a believer
it becomes the body and blood of Christ. If you're an unbeliever
and take it, it doesn't do you any good. Now, the Lord said,
this is my body. He also said, I am the door.
Is it a door? Literally? He said, I am the
vine. Does that mean he's this vine
with leaves coming out and branches coming from it? No. This is given
to teach us what is being said. When he talks about my body broken
for you, he's talking about substitution. My body, this is my body broken
for you. And then he makes this statement,
this do in remembrance of me. Now, I think one of the saddest
commentaries about me, and I'm sure you would agree about you,
is the fact that we could forget. This do in remembrance of me. And the only reason that's necessary
to say is we forget. And we forget all the time. And the point of this ordinance,
it's not a sacrament, it doesn't have any saving virtue, it doesn't
have the nature of a sacrifice, it's not a means of grace, grace
is not conveyed through this, it's an ordinance. But it's to
remind us that Jesus Christ is all in salvation at all times. My only hope at all times, the
first time I believed, right now and when I take my last breath,
will be that the shed blood of Christ is all that's needed to
put away my sins. His righteousness is my righteousness,
and I never get past that. I never graduate past that. I
never go on to bigger and better things. I never say, I got that
damn pat, now let's move on to something else. No, this lets
us know that His death, His life, His death, His burial, His resurrection,
what He accomplished, substitution. And I love thinking about this.
I want to add this thought to substitution. He did this as
a surety. You know what that means? That
means He knew exactly what He was doing, and He took full responsibility
for my salvation when He did this. That's why He came. He
did this as a surety, as my guarantee, Everything. He said, I'm taking
full responsibility for Todd Nybert and every other believer,
all of God's elect. I take full responsibility. And
that's what he did. As a surety and as a substitute,
his body was broken because he took my sin. It became his sin
and the wrath of God crushed him. He did that willingly. He's the lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. And look what he says in verse
25, after the same manner also, he took the cup when he'd supped
saying, this cup is the New Testament. What's the New Testament? His
blood accomplishing salvation. So simple. We read in Hebrews
13 20 of the blood of the everlasting covenant. God made a covenant. He gave the people to his son,
and his son saved them by what he accomplished on Calvary's
tree, his death. He put away their sins. And it's
the ratification of the covenant. This is why everybody in that
covenant will be saved. It's the blood of the New Testament,
the blood of the new covenant. This cup is the New Testament
in my blood. This do ye as oft as ye drink
it. I like the way he says it, as oft as you drink it. You know,
there are places where they take the Lord's table every service.
Would I be critical of that? No. No, we do it once a month. Somebody says, where's it say
in the Bible? It doesn't tell how often to do it. It doesn't
say every Lord's Day, but it doesn't say this as often as
you do it. It's something to be, the work
of Christ on the cross is to be brought before us all the
time. And this do as often as you do
it in remembrance of me." Now, his broken body, what I think
of when I, it's just what it is. His broken body is him being
broken under the wrath of God. And his shed blood is what he
actually accomplished by his shed blood. Neither by the blood
of goats and calves, but by his own blood. He entered in once. Why once? No reason to do it
again. Work was finished. He entered
in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption
for us. That is the New Testament in
His blood. Now this is the gospel. This do in remembrance of me. Now this is what I thought about. He says this twice, both with
regard to the bread and the wine, this do in remembrance of me.
What if his memory was like my memory? That'd prove fatal for me. One, because he'd forget me.
If his memory was like my memory, He'd forget me, but thank God
it's not. He said, can a woman forget her
suckling child? Yes, she may, but I won't forget
you. The Lord will never forget. And here's another problem with
my memory. My memory remembers sins against me, not him. Their sins and their
iniquities will I remember no more. You never did it. Isn't
that amazing? When we're brought into heaven,
we won't be brought into heaven as forgiven sinners, although
we are. We'll be brought into heaven
as perfect, having never sinned, perfectly righteous, without
guilt. He won't say, I remember what
he did. I remember what she did, didn't
do anything. Oh, aren't you thankful for his
memory? And he's got a memory that never
forgets something the way I forget it. The reason he doesn't remember
sin and iniquity is because there's nothing there to remember. What
a glorious thing is his memory. Now let's look in verse 26. Four. As often as you eat this bread,
drink this cup you do show," and that word is generally translated
preach. This is the message we preach. We preach the Lord's death. We preach who died. It's Christ
that died. It's the God-man. We preached
why he died. He died according to the purpose
of God. He died because of sin. It became his. He died as a sin-bearing
substitute, suffering the wrath of God. He died according to
the purpose of God. Who did he die for? He died for
the elect. I love saying that. I hate it when preachers say
he died for those who believe. Well, that's not gonna offend
anybody. He died for those who believe. He died for the elect.
He died for those the Father gave him. There won't be anybody
in hell that he died for. Everybody he died for must be
saved. What did he accomplish by his
death? The complete salvation of his people. That's a message
we preach, isn't it? That's the only message to preach.
It goes something like this. Who is he that condemneth? It's
Christ that, what? died, yea, rather that's risen
again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh
intercession for us. This is the subject matter of
our preaching, the glory of his death. Now let's go on reading
verse 27. Wherefore, whosoever shall eat
this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily, shall
be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. Now, when I was
a young believer, I did not want to take the Lord's table. And
here's why. I read this verse and it scared
me. I thought, I'm not worthy to
take the Lord's table. And really, when it comes right
down to it, you know what's behind that? Not humility, but self-righteousness. Thinking maybe there's a way
I could make myself worthy to take the Lord's table. And I'd
also heard, I'd heard this from several different sources. I
don't know where it was, but I heard that if you have sin
in your life, you're not fit to take the Lord's table. And
so, man, you know, that pretty much wipes me out if that's the
case. You know, I can't take the Lord's table. I'd be doing
so unworthily. And here is the guilt of this thing. If you take it unworthily,
you'll be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. It's
the same as, it's so bad, it's murdering Christ. That's how
bad this is, to eat the bread and to drink the cup unworthily. Now, let me say this. If that's
the way I understand the Lord's table, I don't understand the
gospel. Worthy? As if I can make myself worthy? If I'm just good enough, I can
make myself worthy? That's horrible to even think
that way. Why did the Lord die? For sin! I think of what Paul said, Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I was chief.
No! Of whom I am the chief. Right now. present tense. Oh
wretched man, not that I was, but that I am. Who'd Christ die for? When we
were yet without strength in due time, Christ died for the
ungodly. If you're without strength and
if you're ungodly, that means he died for you. And when we
take the Lord's table, we're saying that the only hope we
have is what He accomplished. It is just crazy to look at,
I can make myself worthy? No, you can't. Your worthiness
really is your unworthiness. And you're not even good at being
unworthy, are you? I mean, here, our worthiness is Christ. That's
our worthiness. He's our worthiness. Not anything
in us. Not how bad we feel or how good
we feel. Not how much we feel. He is our
worthiness. He is all. Verse 28, But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the cup. Who are we to examine? One of So-and-so is going to
take it. You shouldn't even think that way. Let a man examine himself. And
you know what it says next? So let him eat. It doesn't say
if you don't fit the bill, you better not take it. Let a man
examine himself. And here's what we're examining.
Is Christ all I have? That's what I'm trying to see.
Is Christ all that I have? Now, If I have anything else,
I'm failing to discern the Lord's body. Look what he says in verse
29, for he that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh
damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. Let a man examine himself. I've
already touched on this. For a man to set himself up as
one who has the power to withhold the Lord's table from someone
else, that's just plain creepy. I mean, who do you think you
are? What do you think you are to put yourself in a position
like that? Like you could judge whether
or not somebody ought to take the Lord's table. Don't examine
anybody else. Let a man examine himself. If you have anything other than
Christ, don't take the Lord's table. I'm warning you. Don't take the Lord's table.
You're in trouble if you do. Now, somebody says, does that
mean if I take the Lord's table unworthily, I'll be eternally
damned? Look in verse 32. But when we are judged, we are
chastened of the Lord. This condemnation, we're not
talking about eternal damnation. Now, let me say this. When have
you taken the Lord's table free of self-righteousness? You haven't had a second like
that. Neither have I. But this is such a grievous sin
to not fail to discern the Lord's body. And that's discerning why
he died, what he accomplished, how he glorified himself. That's
this thing of discerning the Lord's body. His body is all
in my salvation. That's what it is. And to fail
to discern that is to make a mockery of the Lord's table. As a matter
of fact, if somebody thinks they're worthy, well, I can look at my
life, I've examined myself, I'm worthy. You make a mockery of
the cross when you think something like that. You make a mockery
of what the Lord, or if I do it, I make a mockery. That's
how serious this is. I'm to look to Christ alone. Let a man examine himself, and
so let him eat. Now if upon examination you say,
well, I'm not worthy. You're not ready to die yet either.
If you examine yourself as a believer, you'll know you're nothing but
sin and you'll look to Christ only. That's exactly what'll
take place. If you examine yourself and say,
I'm not quite up to snuff, I better wait till next week, maybe next
month I'll have something taken care of and I'll be worthy to
eat the Lord's table. Oh, no, no. For he that eateth and drinketh
unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning
the Lord's body. Now look at this, verse 30, for
this cause, because many are not discerning the Lord's body,
and that's what was going on in the church of Corinth. It
was going on for this cause. Many are weak and sickly among
you, and many sleep. Some are even dying. Now, The
first thing I'd like to say about that is if a believer gets sick
and you think that there's some kind of sin in their life that
caused it, you're so far off base, you're so, if I think that,
I'm so way out of line, that's, you don't know what the Lord's
doing and you don't know what anybody else has done either.
And anytime we judge somebody, we're playing the hypocrite.
When I judge you, and I do it, I wish I didn't. Sometimes I
think how can I ever judge anybody again within 30 seconds I'm doing
it. But Paul did say this, therefore thou art inexcusable, oh man,
whosoever thou art that judges, for you that judgest. doest,
present tense. You that judgest, doest the same
things. So if I look at somebody and
say, boy, they're having trouble in their life. They must be sinning
some kind of great sin. That's what Job's buddies all
accused him of. There's something behind this.
You're guilty of something. This wouldn't be happening to
you if it wasn't for something, some kind of secret sin in your
life that you're committing. Oh, may the Lord deliver us from
being that way. That's just fleshly. It's still
true. that Paul says, for this cause,
because of your lack of discernment, the lack of discerning of the
Lord's body, many are weak and sickly, and many sleep among
you. People even die. Now, that's
what it says. Somebody says it couldn't mean
that. Well, what else does it mean? That's exactly what it means. I don't
see any way you can get away from that. That's what he says
about that. Now, look what he says next.
This is helpful. Verse 31. For if we would judge
ourselves, we should not be judged. Here's the only time it's good
to judge somebody. The only time when you judge
yourself. The word judge, now, Language
means something, and God the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to
write this in a certain way. And in language, you have past,
present, future. I mean, that's the way we talk.
That's the way we think. That's the way we live. You have a perfect
tense. perfectly completed, never to
be repeated, an action that's already completed. And you have
what's called the imperfect tense. And this is spoken of in the
imperfect tense. And it means literally, if it
was in the present tense, it'd say, we're judging ourselves. That's present tense. But this
imperfect tense, and I, you know, I always question whether or
not I ought to even bring out things like this, but it was
helpful to me. It means if we keep on judging ourselves nonstop. Perfect is. It's a done deal,
it's finished. Imperfect means it's always going
on nonstop. I'm continually judging myself
and guilty as charged, nonstop. Here's the only time it's good
to judge. If we judge ourselves, we should
not be judged. Why is that? You're not judging yourself,
no, it's because there's no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.
That's why. It's because of the power of
the blood of Christ. You're not judged because you
don't judge, you're judged because Christ died for you. And if you
and I ever get a glimpse of who we are, we'll continually be
judging ourselves. Guilty, guilty, guilty. And you know what that means?
That means I all the time, There's not a time that goes by when
I don't need the precious blood of Christ. It's all I have to
make me acceptable before God. When I was first saved, this
is when I was first saved, when I saw Christ was the end of the
law for righteousness, I didn't have anything else. The blood
of Christ was my only hope of being accepted. When I was first
saved, I knew that. Somebody that doesn't know that
has never been saved, amen? That's the hope of the believer.
You know what, right now, it hadn't changed a bit. Not a bit. Right now, the only hope that
I have is the blood of Christ, most precious, the sinner's perfect
plea. And on my dying breath, I don't
know when it's going to be, but my dying breath, the only hope
I'll have is the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, his broken
body and his shed blood. When from the dust of death I
rise to take my mansions in the sky, even then shall this be
all my plea, that Jesus lived and died for me. If we would judge ourselves,
we should not be judged. But when we are judged, when
the Lord does, Chasing us, we're chasing to the Lord. Whom the
Lord loveth, he chasineth. Do I wanna be chasing? No. Do
I wanna be chasing? Yes. Yes. Whom the Lord loveth, he chasineth.
And what is this chasing? Well, we're driven back to ground
zero and we're made to see in whatever way the Lord sees fit
to teach us. that all we have is Jesus Christ. That's it. And what a blessing
that is. Whom the Lord loveth. You and
I have these self-righteous, stupid thoughts, judgmental thoughts
toward others, and the Lord knows how to bring us back to the place,
that's what this chastening is, the place to where we have nothing
but Christ. But when we're judged, we're
chastened to the Lord that we should not be condemned with
the world. Wherefore, my brethren, when you come together to eat,
tarry one for another. If any man hunger, let him eat
at home. This is not about getting enough to eat, that you come
not together unto condemnation. And remember that he said at
the first of this, you're not coming together for the better.
but for the worse. Now, I pray that as we, and if
any man hunger, let him eat at home, that ye come not together
into condemnation. The rest will I set in order
when I come. I pray that as we partake of the Lord's table,
we're really doing this. I hope we can quit thinking about
how much do I feel this and Do this in remembrance of him. I'm
remembering right now, by his grace, that all my salvation,
all of it, is found in his broken body and in his shed blood. Let's take the bread and the
wine now.